Synthesis and Therapeutic Effects of Alkylglycerols

Natural shark liver oil (SLO) mixture was empirically used as strengthening or wound healing medication. The active ingredients in the SLO mixture were found to be a group of ether-linked glycerol known as alkylglycerols (AKGs). During the last century, initial clinical use of the SLO mixture was for treating leukemias, and later preventing radiation sickness from cancer x-ray therapy, inhibiting tumour growth and metastasis formation. Currently, resistance to the existing drugs and increasing numbers of diseases resulted in identifying new drugs candidates with new forms of activities. Consequently, natural and non-natural synthesized AKGs could be one new source of drug delivery systems. Additionally, defined synthetic routes to AKGs will facilitate further investigation of biological activities, as natural AKGs were found present in various human cells but only in trace quantities.This book focuses on the medicinal chemistry of new potential drugs, with alklyglycerols as undeniable source.